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VDA. de Enriquez vs. Abadia
VDA. de Enriquez vs. Abadia
ISSUE:
Whether the Last Will executed by the testator is valid even if the making of holographic will at the time
of its execution was not yet permitted by law.
RULING:
NO. The validity of a will as to form is to be judged not by the law in force at the time of the testator's
death or at the time the supposed will is presented in court for probate or when the petition is decided by
the court but at the time the instrument was executed. One reason in support of the rule is that although
the will operates upon and after the death of the testator, the wishes of the testator about the disposition of
his estate among his heirs and among the legatees is given solemn expression at the time the will is
executed, and in reality, the legacy or bequest then becomes a completed act.
From the day of the death of the testator, if he leaves a will, the title of the legatees and devisees under it
becomes a vested right, protected under the due process clause of the Constitution against a subsequent
change in the statute adding new legal requirements of execution of wills, which would invalidate such a
will. By parity of reasoning, when one executes a will which is invalid for failure to observe and follow
the legal requirements at the time of its execution then upon his death he should be regarded and declared
as having died intestate, and his heirs will then inherit by intestate succession, and no subsequent law with
more liberal requirements or which dispenses with such requirements as to execution should be allowed
to validate a defective will and thereby divest the heirs of their vested rights in the estate by intestate
succession. The general rule is that the Legislature cannot validate void wills (57 Am. Jur., Wills, Sec.
231, pp. 192-193).